Quint: Death of Time
by NukeGunray
Summary: After "Clash of the Sky Galleons": Quint and Maris have to start a new live... together? A story for those who were not satisfied by the end of the Quint trilogy, a story for those who want to meet again the most interesting couple of the chronicles


**Quint: Death of Time**

(this fanfic plays immediatly after "Clash of the Sky Galleons", although in this version the _Galerider_ was not damaged during Quint's final fight with Thaw Daggerslash)

 **Prologue**

A cold gust of wind blows over the _Galerider's_ planks as the young sky pirate captain draws up some of the hull weights and the stone pilot dims the flight burners... they have already flown for one whole night without speaking a single word:

When the _Bringer of Doom_ , the biggest sky ship of all time, was pulled down into the dark woods by the weight of more then one thousand iron wood pines and the Leagues thus lost the Clash of the sky galleons against the armada of sky pirates, Quint had already set sail for Undertown – hoping that he could leave behind the gruesome memories of the past few days...

But not only the nearly lost clash is causing the young captain trouble and not even the cool morning air works against his anger as he thinks of his man-to-man fight against the murderer of his entire family, the arch enemy of the Verginix – Turbot Smeal.

Or rather Thaw Daggerslash, how Quint realized after the battle: The traitorous quartermaster had been dead for quite a while and this young sky pirate was just an imposter who set traps for Wind Jackal and his crew, hoping to get control over the _Galerider_ this way.

The Cliff Quarries... The Sluice Tower... the Slave Market...

Quint still shivers with fear even when he just thinks about these creepy, abandoned places full of ghosts and unwanted creatures.

He looks up and stares into the endless sky before him: the sun is rising slowly.

Suddenly Quint relives the death of his father, without being able to stop the rapid burst of memories: How he boarded the abandoned ship despite his father's orders to not do it. How he fought his way up just to find his father lying there without any spark of live in him, killed by a Thaw.

Not even the body could be saved, due to his fresh blood attracting all kind of hungry creatures from within the ship wreck, forcing Quint to leave immediatly.

Tears fill his eyes and the wind hurts on his face. His grip around the steering wheel loosens and he feels crushed underneath a giant wave of desperation, just like when he was buried under the Blood-Red-Glister inside Sanctaphrax' Stonecomb.

The _Galerider_ enters an air turbulence and starts to swing uncontrolled, causing the crew to fall out from their hammocks in their quarters – even the stone pilots looks up from her beloved rock and gets frightened, when she sees how sad Quint is.

 _Everything lost!_ , Quint thinks full of pain – but suddenly he feels a warm hand on his.

With eyes wet from tears he turns his head and looks into two beautiful black eyes:

"Maris?", he asks, suppressing a sob.

Instead of answering she takes her arms around him, presses him against her body and presses her lips on his.

 **Return to Sanctaphrax**

They arrive in Undertown in the evening. Quint leaves the _Galerider_ at the docks for repairs and tells his crew to take a week off – of course not without giving them equal parts of the money he left at the professors of light and darkness right before their flight to the Wilderness Lair some days ago.

With Maris he moves into her old rooms in Sanctaphrax – they were untouched since her father's death three years ago. Twizel and Welma are going to join them in some days, but first, the two of them want to relax from the recent events they both endured.

Maris has strange feelings, when she enters her old apartment, it feels like she had not been there for an eternity. Without recognizing most of it, she wanders through the rooms and chambers where she spent her childhood and early youth. She is alone, Quint is at the Knights Academy with his friends: Phin, a brave academic-at-arms who always has a funny line at hand, even if the situation is hopeless. Raff, a Knight Academic in waiting. And Stope, one of the best smiths in all of the edge land... the Winter Knights, saviors of Sanctaphrax and brothers in arms.

Maris raises an eyebrow as she sees herself in the mirror: Instead of a cute academic's daughter with pursed lips, she now looks into eyes full of wisdom, experience and strength. She looks at the well formed female figure of a sixteen year old fourthling, dressed with blood soaked sky pirate cloths.

Slowly and concentrated she takes each piece off.

First the thick breast harness, the centerpiece of the whole armour. Whether while boarding an enemy sky ship or while seeking cover from arrows... this piece of equipment was a sky pirate's best friend.

Next up there are the heavy leather gloves which protect a pirate's fingers while roping down at high speed and beating in skulls alike.

Although Maris had only been the _Galerider's_ paramedic and not a a fighter of any sort, Quint had given her a razor sharp cutlass with a flamboyant sheath – for the worst case.

But now, far away from sky battles and violence, surrounded by knowledge and politeness in Sanctaphrax, she opens her belt and disarms herself.

While taking off her clothes, until she wears only her undergarment, she thinks about how glad she is to be back on the flying rock after all this time. When she thinks about the strange heart of Sanctaphrax, his treasury full of stormphrax, her mind suddenly covers with doubt and dark thoughts: She thought about Quint and how his eyes always used to glow when he told her about how proud he was to become a Knight Academic. Chasing a storm and returning full of triumph with a big chest full of these holy crystals had been his dream for quite a while – just until Wind Jackal died.

From this day forward, Quint was a sky pirate, with his own ship, his own crew, and even an own name – Maris' heart beats louder, as she thinks about how she heard him say it for the first time: Cloud Wolf.

When Thaw Daggerslash told her, that Quint would rather want to become a knight then a captain in order to acquire her vote for him, she immediately refused – because she knew just how much Quint dreamed of stirring his own sky ship through the endless sky.

But now... now, back in Sanctaphrax, more and more doubts come to her mind. The fire, which was kindled inside his heart when he was in the academy, still burns hot. After all he had been the best knight after Quode Quanx-Querix in every aspect of his training, equipped with a thirst for knowledge, skill, strength, perseverance – and virtue. Even towards his worst enemies he has always been a friend, even though this habit had more than once nearly got the best of him.

Maris shivers as she realizes that Vilnix Pompolnius still lives here, on Sanctaphrax.

Only in the position of a small raintaster, but still... who knew what he would do in some years, when all his misdeeds were slowly fogotten by the other academics.

 _Someone like him is always eager to rule_ , Maris says to herself, _what horrors could he unleash?_

 _What if he already knows about Quint's return? Is he plotting a revenge, just like when he tried to kill both of us on the old balcony?_

Suddenly the door opens. Maris holds her breath and grabs for her knife.

 **Wild Wig Wigs**

As Quint enters Maris' apartment, she is nowhere to be found.

 _Is she out for a walk?_ , he asks himself while he wanders the empty rooms, _or..._

The second he enters her bedroom, he notices a fast movement behind him. His heart beats faster and he turns around quickly, ready to pull his sword – but it is too late: The cold point of a knife floats just in front of his throat.

Time freezes as he slowly moves up his view, from the knife to a soft skinned arm and finally into a pair of amused eyes.

"Got ya!", Maris gagles in triumph and sticks the knife back into its sheath. Quint's heart starts beating again and his pale face slowly gets back its colour: "Maris, what in heaven's name is the matter with you?"

Instead of an answer she just shrugs her shoulders, turns her back on him and closes the expensive curtains made out of nightspider silk.

Quint shakes his head and gently moves forward, until he is so close to Maris, that he can smell her parfume. She acts, as if she does not notice him at all and so he softly fondles her shoulders and arms.

"Where did you learn to handle a knife this way?", he asks with a rough tone in his voice.

Although he can not actually see her face he knows exactly that she is smiling right now as she thinks about how she can answer.

Finally she answers: "I had a sky pirate captain as teacher", and when she turns around, Quint can see the biggest smile he had ever seen, "or a Knight Academic... pick your favorite... Quint."

His skin prickels as she aspirates his name like that and so she starts to gently touch his torso: Her small hands crawl above his strong arms, his warm cheeks and his broad shoulders – at first they stress upon her contact, but then his muscles slowly relax.

While her hands enter his shirt and move across his warm skin, he subtly tightens his grip around her and presses her onto him... until they are so close that he can feel her hot breath on his face.

Both their breathing accelerates and Quint feels an emotion he had not known to this day: A burning desire. Even before, his heart had always instantly filled with joy when he heard her name – from the first day he had known her, he knew that he wanted her.

When this gloamgloazer of a sky pirate, Thaw Daggerslash, boarded the _Galerider_ weeks ago, Quint nearly died of jealousy: Thaw always had presents for Maris, medicine or even special food.

And she... she always got red cheeks upon these offers and Quint felt as if his heart would explode every second.

"You are mine!", he exclaims unintentionally. Maris is surprised: "What did you just - "

A kiss interrupts her question. Although they had kissed before, this time was... different.

They kissed for an eternity, their lips seemed to merge into one and both of them could not feel anything but joy and desire in them.

Carefuly, like a skulpelt approaching her prey in the lullaby grooves, his shaking fingers open the ties of her dress, one by one... Maris exhales surprised and tries to move back, but Quint just kisses her again and she immediately joins in: While enjoying their little piece of heaven, he jerks her dress and it falls down to the ground.

But before he can have a look on the beautiful things he just uncovered, she presses his torso agains her breast with one hand and uses the other to open and pull down his pants.

Then she pushes him back and they both fall onto the fresh white bed, Quint lands on his back and Maris kneels above him.

Quint forgets to breath for some seconds and feels a never known heat rise in his veins as he sees her aristocraticly pale body before him: Her small hip... her well formed breasts... her loving facial expression. She bows down to him and kisses his forehead while he gently touches her exposed body: "I love you, Maris."

She grins and whispers: "I love you too, Quint."


End file.
